Dave Gloeckner 
It’s Sunday Funday here at The Sweet Spot. We have a great slate of games on the schedule for today. The pitching looks deep with value at all three of our main tiers. And there are several stacks that align well with metrics use to develop our lineups. So let’s go get it today and add some extra cash in your bankroll.
This article will focus on Pitchers, from aces to value, and Hitters, from team stacks to studs to value plays. Prop bets for today will be provided in the Gophers and Gas article.
There are many tools available, but I hope you’re using the Win Daily Projection Model as that has been very helpful in rostering key players each night.
For DFS, the featured card today begins at 12:35 pm with 10 games on the slate. All DFS plays below will come from those 10 games and any later games will be captured in Discord.
PITCHERS – DRAFTKINGS
CLASSIC SLATE – 12:35 PM Start
KEVIN GAUSMAN ($11,400 DK)
The Blue Jays ace has been stellar all season except for 2 starts. In his last outing, he revenged one of his previous poor outings with a great performance against the Astros. He tied his season high with 13 K’s while allowing just 1 ER over 7 innings of work.
And while we tend to avoid the $11K range, today’s matchup is just too good to pass on. The Minnesota Twins are batting just 0.192 in the month of June and they pair that with a 27.4% K rate. Add to that the fact that Gausman is home where he is 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA and we have a high potential to see a 3x value out of the Jays RHP.
FREDEI PERALTA ($8800 DK)
Peralta will be a popular play today because of his opponent, the Oakland A’s, and K potential, 24.5% K rate. He’s also a much better pitcher at home where he has a 3.41 ERA and K/9 of 10.7. On the flip side, Oakland is riding a season high 4 game win streak and has won consecutive series for the first time this season. They are batting 0.266 in June which is good for 9th in baseball. So I’m going to tread carefully here but won’t expose myself to a lot of Peralta. The salary is still a good number which keeps him in my player pool. Bu he’s a better play in cash games as I think there are higher potential arms on the slate today.
BRAXTON GARRETT ($8200 DK)
The last time I recommended using Braxton Garrett was also a Sunday and he went out and pitched a dandy where he allowed just 1 ER on 3 hits to the Cincinnati Reds. He also struck out 8 in that contest and produced his 2nd highest fantasy output of the season at 22.3 DK points.
Let’s hope he can make it two straight for us as he goes against another “central” team in the White Sox. The ChiSox are batting just 0.206 in the month of June and have a 25.7% K rate. The South Siders have just 3 runs in the series with Miami so far and are coming off a heartbreaking loss yesterday which could lead to some batters pressing. It used to be fade LHP’s against Chicago but not anymore as they are 16th in wOBA and 14th in wRC+ against southpaws on the season.
HUNTER GREENE ($8000 DK)
The Reds flamethrower has lived up to his billing in his past 4 outings. In those contests he struck out 37 batters. In fact, in his last 2 games he’s allowed just 2 hits over his last 12 innings. Today, he gets the Cardinals who he faced 4 times last season and racked up 27 K’s in 19 innings of work. And this year’s version of the Cardinals offense is much worse than the 2022 team. St Louis is limping into today with a 0.226 batting average in the month of June (10th worst in baseball) and have averaged 4 runs over their past 10 games
KOOL-AIDE MAN (SWEET SPOT VALUE PITCHER UNDER $7K)
BRANDON BIELAK ($6600 DK)
Bielak has the K potential we look for in pitchers residing in this range. While his 18.5% K rate and 7.9 K/9 are lower than we like, he’s had 3 games of 6+ K’s in his last 7 starts. And while Cleveland has picked up the offense of late, they are still 29th in wOBA and wRC+ on the season. It’s a lineup that has holes and can be attacked which gives us some confidence in Bielak’s potential.
BONUS PICKS
I do like MITCH KELLER ($10,400 DK) today against the Mets. The Mets are in complete disarray losing 7 of their last 8 games. And to make matters worse, they lost their slugger Pete Alonso to an injury earlier in the week. Keller let many of us down on Tuesday with his poor performance against Oakland. But I see a rebound today against a Mets team that is batting 0.221 with a 25.8% K rate in June.
HITTERS – DRAFTKINGS
CLASSIC SLATE – 12:35 PM
SWEET SPOT STACK ATTACK: The stacks I like today in baseball are the Braves (vs Williams), the Reds (vs. Wainwright), the Pirates (vs. Carrasco) and the Dodgers (vs. Walker)
CORE BATTERS
RONALD ACUNA JR ($6500 DK)
The Braves are batting 0.316 as a team during the month of June which leads the league and is 22 points higher than the next closest team. Let’s start our stack with their best player in Ronald Acuna. He’s had a hit in 8 of his last 9 games and has averaged 14.6 DK points in that span. He’s also a career 6 for 12 off Washington SP Trevor Williams.
For stacking, look at MATT OLSON, AUSTIN RILEY AND MARCELL OZUNA. I’m paying up for Braves bats today where I can. But I’ll also look at Ozuna who has two homers in his last 3 games.
ELLY DE LA CRUZ ($4300 DK)
I was fortunate enough to be scheduled to write an article last Tuesday which was the MLB debut of Elly De La Cruz. And my exact quote from that article was “Jump on the low salary today because it’ll shortly skyrocket soon”. And skyrocket it has as his $2000 salary has risen to $4300 in just 5 games of awesome play. However, I’m not backing down off this price as he’s averaging 12.8 DK points and has a hit in all 5 of his games so far. I like that to continue today versus Adam Wainwright and the Cards.
For stacking, I also like SPENCER STEER, TYLER STEPHENSON, AND MATT MCLAIN today for the Reds.
SLAP HITTER (SWEET SPOT VALUE BATTER) – LESS THAN $3K
RYAN OHEARN ($2600 DK)
Obviously you’ll need to keep an eye on lineup cards to ensure O’Hearn is starting today for the Orioles. If he is, I like his value in a lineup that should be able to hit Royals SP Carlos Hernandez. That’s because the O’s 1B has 9 hits in his last 26 at-bats and 3 recent games of double digit point production.
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